Use of indocyanine green for sentinel lymph node biopsy in melanoma

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy for cutaneous melanoma is a critical part of designing therapy for the skin malignancy. A retrospective review of 54 patients with cutaneous melanoma who underwent SLN biopsy guided by both radiotracer injection and indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescent dye compared the accuracy of identifying the SLN using each method. Patients were injected preoperatively with radiotracer at the site of the primary melanoma and intraoperatively with 2.5 mg of ICG. The detection of the SLN was compared between the two methods. Patients were followed to determine local recurrence and survival from 5 months to 4 years. ICG and radiotracer identified the SLN in 52 of 54 patients. In those patients who mapped, 52 of 52 showed mapping to the same node or nodes. The rate of cancer involvement in the identified node was 19.2% for both techniques. There was no difference in recurrence or survival between the two methods of SLN identification in short follow-up. In conclusion, ICG injection and mapping to identify SLN in cutaneous melanoma is confirmatory for radiotracer mapping and in the future may be an accurate and less costly method for SLN biopsy in cutaneous melanoma.